The Red Rose Princess and His White Rose Prince
by Believe4Ever
Summary: Long ago, in a land not far from here, there lived the Red Rose Princess, Yui...


_Long ago, in a land not far from here, there lived the Red Rose Princess, Yui. She lived in a terrible place. Ever since she was young, she had been locked away in a mansion. The mansion was large, and had a great garden which she was allowed to walk through, but it seemed no matter where she went in her garden, she was constantly reminded of her entrapment. She wished to leave the mansion but she could not escape her mother._

_Yui's mother, the Queen of Roses, was not a bad person. She simply had no time for her daughter. The queen had her own worries regarding the kingdom which stretched for miles in all directions. She had to attend to her husband, King of Thorns, and make sure everything was being taken care of with the townspeople. Every which way she would run, trying to reach every townsperson's voice, reminding them of what they were to do for they often forgot how busy royalty could be. All of this work wore down on the Queen of Roses, leaving her to forget of Yui's needs._

_The Red Rose Princess often wept in her room, longing for a life outside of the mansion she was forced to stay in. It seemed even in the garden, surrounded by all the unique flowers she'd grown up with and adored, it wasn't the same. She missed seeing her mother's face and longed for a time when she and her parents spent an evening in the dining hall. Instead, all she could do was look out onto the world she'd never known._

_'Oh, won't someone come and take me away from this dreadful place?' she would cry out the streets below her. There was never a soul passing by._

_And so, Yui remained dormant in her mansion. She kept lost in her thoughts, traveling absently through her everyday life. She saw her mother less and less until it seemed she could barely recall her mother's face at all. The garden became a second home to her as she walked past the flora every afternoon. The sight of the familiar roses hooked onto the thorned stalks weighed on her heart as images of her parents, once happy and together, plagued her. Unbeknownst to her, the flowers wilted with her sorrow, each day lowering their blossomed foreheads toward the soil, as though bowing before someone greater than themselves._

_The poor princess soon began to give up on any hope of leaving. Even with no spark of optimism left in her hollow heart, she continued to wait by her window for hours until she retired to bed._

_Then, one day, a traveler appeared._

_He was a tall gentleman, clad in white and an ivory ring coiled about his thumb, gleaming in the sunlight. "Oh, dear thee, princess!" he called from the ground upon seeing the miserable Yui at her window. "Why do you linger at your window, as though waiting for the arrival of someone of importance?"_

_"I am waiting for my rescuer!" the Red Rose Princess cried back, tears in her eyes as she recalled the futile hours of waiting every evening. "I am waiting for the day that a handsome young prince will save me from this terrible existence! I hate it here, and I wish to leave, but I have no way of leaving on my own."_

_"Is there a certain prince you are awaiting, princess?"_

_"No. I simply want someone who cares to take me away from here; far away from here!"_

_The traveler smiled and bowed. "Then, dear princess, allow me to be your rescuer. I, Shu, the White Rose Prince, shall carry you away from this prison you despise so!"_

_Fresh tears sprung into the princess's eyes as she listened to Shu's words. He flew to the door of the mansion, flinging it open as though it were of no trouble for him. Yui dashed down the steps towards the front door, eager to meet her savior face to face. Upon arrival, she stopped short._

_So long had she lived in the darkness of the mansion, so long she had gone without seeing another, that she had forgotten the image of kind features on a stranger's face. The White Rose Prince, who stood before her, was smiling at her. He looked at her as though she were the only one he could care about in this dismal world in which they lived._

_"Oh, how I barely know if I can leave," the Red Rose Princess murmured, eyes shining as she took a tentative step toward him._

_The prince smiled and held out a hand toward her, ring glinting warmly in the low light of the setting sun. "Worry not, princess. You shall suffer in sorrow no more. Do not despair for this world. Do not fear, for I shall be with you."_

_Yui smiled, comforted by his words, and took his hand. The two fled the mansion, and for the first time the princess saw the outside world from a new view. She saw the light, felt the warmth upon her face, and relished in her own laughter as she ran through the meadows she had only observed from her perch. How it felt to be free! How it felt to be saved! And, even more so, how it felt to be in the company of another._

_Such was how the prince saved the princess from a world of darkness. And they lived happily ever after._

…

Yuuichi closed the storybook, scowling to himself as he shoved it away. "How stupid," he muttered as he lay back onto his bed. "The whole premise is so _stupid_. As if someone would rescue such a naïve girl from a mansion. That would never happen."

Yet, even as he spoke his words, the young boy rolled over and looked out his window. He would never admit it to anyone else aloud, but he wished he could be a princess. He often wished his own prince would come and rescue him away from the despair he felt.

Unfortunately, unlike fairy tales, how rarely is there ever a happy ending to one's story.

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading!<strong>


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